Harry Kane (left) has 13 goals in his last nine England games but his stunning run feels like a team achievement, an extension of the collective will.
Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

As the final whistle was blown at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium Kyle Walker grabbed the match ball and gleefully smashed it in an arc into the white and red seats, where a crush of heat-stricken travelling fans wallowed and waved and gurgled, basking in the glorious improbability of England’s 6-1 defeat of Panama.

The hope probably does get you in the end but it is undeniably fun while it lasts. At times like these tournament football can feel a bit like a doomed holiday romance, a World Cup group stage version of the broodingly handsome Spanish waiter who’ll take you for a pedalo ride, wave goodbye and never write, but who will remain forever a fond, cologne-drenched summer memory.

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England’s two Group G wins will be taken in more sober context by the players and management. Panama were a poor team, with a porous defence led by the captain, Román Torres, who drifted around the edge of the game like a Soviet-era battle cruiser rusting its final days away at the Kaliningrad docks.

On the other hand England have played poor teams before at World Cups and never won like this. Perhaps those on the edge might be allowed to bask just a little in the 68-year rarity of a 6-1 win against anyone. Sport is all about moments. And as a wise man once said, when something’s good it’s never gone.

That done, it is now time to look ahead to Thursday and entry into an entirely different footballing universe. England will play the world’s No 3-ranked team in their final group match. After which it’s a last-16 tie against one of Japan, Senegal or Colombia. All three would be dangerous knockout opponents. All three would also present an opportunity to progress for an England team notable for a distinctly un-English sense of collectivism and detailed planning.

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With this in mind Belgium will present the most apt of opponents. There is an appealing symmetry, two teams at pointedly different stages in their development. For Belgium the England of tournaments past represents a cautionary tale, evidence of the disorientating effects of being both blessed and burdened by a golden seam of players.

Right now Roberto Martínez has more in common with Sven-Göran Eriksson or Kevin Keegan than he does with Southgate, tasked not with finding players, but with cramming a wealth of unarguable talent into a high-functioning team.

Belgium have better players than England in most positions but they also have issues of balance. Martínez is using Yannick Carrasco as a right wing-back and tinkering with Kevin De Bruyne’s best role. The all-star central midfielder. The ginger genius in slightly the wrong pocket. Welcome to our world. And while you are there beware of England’s own pitfalls, from the Baden-Baden rat pack, to Steve McClaren’s excitable dead ends, to the abrupt congealment of the Fabio Capello years.

By contrast a lack of obvious stars has helped Southgate to be ruthless and to favour above all the primacy of the system. Centre-halves have been selected on their ability to use the ball not the grandeur of their club team.

A willingness to buy into the plan, studiousness over starriness, has been key to selection. It is all very well having detailed evidence-based set-piece plans. But these are wasted if the Mr Big Stuff mentality takes over, as it has in the past where England have played like a collection of celebrity individuals, trusting that one of these star players will eventually pull rank and swat aside whichever unfortunate bunch of foreigners – Algeria, the USA, Iceland, Russia – happens to stand in their way.

In a sense this has been a journey from Wayne to Kane. It would be entirely wrong to blame Wayne Rooney for the poverty of England’s recent tournament play. Rooney was a hall-of-famer England player, and a hard worker too but his international retirement has coincided with a complete transformation of the team dynamic.

Since Rooney retired in August last year England have played 12, won nine and drawn three, scoring 22 goals in the process. More to the point the team have looked fluid, mobile in every position, playing to a system not a dominant central personality.

England do have a star in Harry Kane, all the more so now his goals have enthroned him as an early Golden Boot contender. It is a significant spree. Kane has 13 goals in his past nine England games, a purple run to match anything any modern England striker has produced. Rooney’s best was 11 in 10. The peerless Jimmy Greaves got 16 in 11 at one stage. Gary Lineker went on a defining run of 17 in 11 over 18 months, bookended by hat-tricks against Poland and Turkey.

If this is rarified territory for Kane, perhaps the best part is the way it feels like a team achievement, an extension of the collective will. Kane has always looked an obvious successor to that grand old alpha lineage of England centre-forwards. Like Lineker he has that same purity of intention, a palpable love for the idea of the leonine England goalscorer.

But he is also the perfect star for this team, entirely embedded, his best virtues – work rate, link-up play, relentless pressure – the same virtues that define the best of the early Southgate years.

Kane will play where he is asked, combine as a striking pair, drop deep as a No 10, run and harry and bump defenders.

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This is a credit to the player and to Southgate’s leadership and selection. If there is a flaw it is that an absence of starriness coincides with an absence of goals elsewhere. Between them Raheem Sterling, Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard will travel to Kaliningrad with six goals in 80 England appearances. The further England progress, the more likely this dependence is to gum the wheels.

England’s defence will also face a vertiginous step up in class against Belgium. Although even here the power of the system may be key. Southgate will have studied Belgium with the same clear-sighted eye for an edge. He will know they are a team who thrive in possession, who can fret a little without it. The key in these later matches could be the defence’s ability to keep and pass the ball, as they did so well against Panama.

If England are to come unstuck in their next two matches they will at least lose better, lose in a more interesting way. A lone, selfless star; a free-wheeling start; and a team who will look to control the ball rather than chase it against powerful opposition. This is at the very least a fascinating departure.